


Cotton Candy

by dumbhuman



Series: One Scoop or Two [3]
Category: Glee
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 11:58:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumbhuman/pseuds/dumbhuman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The customer definitely isn’t always right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cotton Candy

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr in August 2013

Blaine was a patient person.

He had to be, working in a service job. He had learned quickly to bite his tongue when customers got under his skin. People complained about prices and sizes. Parents scoffed at their children’s choices, whether they were pushing them to get something “less boring than vanilla” or trying to dissuade them from getting gummy worms as a topping. Blaine never really understood why they cared – the parents didn’t have to eat it – but he kept his mouth shut and his smile serene.

He was used to putting on a mask of complacency.

There had been many conversations at the dinner table that made him clench his fists in his lap in an effort to keep quiet, not to rock the boat. He knew from experience that refuting his parents’ opinions – not matter how insulting he found them – would only result in condescending platitudes, like Blaine’s thoughts weren’t valid because he was just some ‘idealistic kid.’

So no, he was not a stranger to keeping his thoughts to himself. His grandfather’s mantra of “seen but not heard” bled into his professional life. He could always vent to Tina or Sugar after the fact, once the shop was empty.  _The customer is always right_  only applied when the customer was within earshot.

-

Blaine was alone when it happened. Business was slow, so Tina took the opportunity to walk down to the main strip of stores to get the two gallons of milk that they needed. It started like any normal interaction. Blaine heard the door open and glanced up as a man and two little kids – probably his son and daughter  - entered the store. He didn’t get up from his stool right away, giving them a few minutes to look around without feeling pressured to make a decision. They didn’t gravitate to the freezers right away, choosing instead to browse the buckets, shovels, and other items that the average beachgoer usually sought out.

“Daddy! Daddy! Can I get goggles?” The little girl jumped up and down, pulling on her father’s pant leg to get his attention. He put down the bottle of sunscreen he had been examining and turned to his daughter. “Sure, why not. What color do you want?”

He rifled through the rack of goggles, picking out one in each color to make the choice easier.

“Ooh, pink!” The daughter grabbed them out of his hands, hugging the eyewear to her chest like a beloved toy.

The man turned his attention to his son. “Which ones do you want, Mason?”

“I want pink, like Emily!”

Suddenly, the man’s demeanor completely changed. He scowled at his son, taking a deep breath. “No.”

Blaine stood up and swiftly walked up to the counter, an argument on the tip of his tongue. It was only the little voice in the back of his head saying  _He’s a customer_  that kept him from lashing out at the man. He schooled his features into a tight smile as the man glanced up in reaction to his sudden movement. “Is everything okay here?”

“Yes, yes, we’ll just need another minute.” His blasé tone was infuriating, especially paired with the tears in his son’s eyes. Blaine turned back around to wipe down the counter, hoping to calm himself down.

“So your son’s crying because of your disgusting gendered perceptions, but everything’s fine?”

Did Blaine just say that?

“Excuse me?” The customer’s indifference had been replaced by outrage.

Blaine turned just in time for the new arrival –  _Kurt_  – to snap back at the man. “You heard me. There’s absolutely no reason your son can’t wear pink goggles.”

“I really don’t think this is any of your business.” He turned back to his children, grabbing two pairs of goggles, one pink and one blue.

“But Daddy, I want the pink too!” The little boy stamped his foot and whined at his father.

“I said no.”

Blaine started when the man slammed the goggles on the counter.

“Are you really worried about what people with think based on the color of your son’s goggles? That they’ll make wrong assumptions and snide remarks about him because he likes pink?”

The man snorted at Kurt’s outburst. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you.You never had to worry about wrong assumptions though, did you? Because everyone can just tell by looking at you that you’re a fa-”

One look at Kurt’s face made Blaine’s decision for him. “Get out.”

The man turned back to him, shocked. “I’d like to buy these-”

“No. Leave. What you said was uncalled for. I’m not taking your money.”

The man sneered and leaned across the counter. “I wasn’t hurting anyone. Just showing the fairy,” he inclined his head toward Kurt, making Blaine’s blood boil even more, “who’s boss, y’know?”

Blaine leaned closer still. “Well,  _this_  fairy isn’t going to put up with your bigotry,” he said through his teeth, obnoxious grin plastered on his face. “Please do not come back.”

The man glanced between Kurt’s stormy glare and Blaine’s overly polite smile. For a second, Blaine was worried he was going to hit one of them. Instead, he turned on his heel and marched out of the store, dragging his wide-eyed children behind him.

The shop felt eerily quiet in the wake of the confrontation. Blaine’s eyes were closed as he counted down from 10, wishing they had a punching bag in the back room to help him calm down. He was so focused that he jumped at the sound of Kurt’s voice, immediately feeling guilty for forgetting that the other boy was there.

“I fucking hate people.”

Blaine would normally argue that not everyone was an asshole, but his own rage combined with the poorly disguised hurt in Kurt’s eyes left no room for his normal idealistic thoughts.

“You can say that again.”

“Actually, I’d rather not waste my breath.”

Blaine had to chuckle at that. They stood there for a few minutes in silence, neither really sure what to say as the tension from the argument dissipated around them. Blaine busied himself trying to gets a spot of dried ice cream off of the counter, rubbing vigorously at the sticky stain. He became so focused that he jumped a little when Kurt’s hand suddenly covered his.

“You’re going to wear a hole in that rag if you keep doing that you know.”

Heat flooded Blaine’s face, even after he looked up and saw that the eyes looking back at him held kindness rather than real mockery. He rubbed the back of his neck, realizing too late that he was still holding the bleach-soaked rag.

“Sorry. I guess I sometimes clean when I’m angry,” Blaine tossed the rag back into the bucket, patting himself on the back for making it in with Kurt watching. He grabbed a paper towel to dab his now damp neck.

“Oh, believe me, I am completely familiar with stress cleaning. Though I go back and forth between that and stress baking. Either we all get Lysol headaches or I end up with plates and plates of cookies that I have to hide from my dad. Which both stress me out all over again, now that I think about it…” He trailed off and laughed.

“Speaking of sweets, can I get you anything? It’s on me, by the way. For having to deal with that jerk.” Blaine tilted his head in the direction of the door.

“Well, if this complementary ice cream is thanks to that homophobic asshole, I’m going to have ice cream fit for a fairy.” Kurt was smiling, but Blaine could tell that the comment was still bothering him.

“Oh really?” Blaine played along, hoping to elicit a real smile from Kurt. “And what exactly does that entail?”

Kurt walked up and down the counter, considering each flavor carefully. His eyes went comically wide as he reached the end of the case. “Oh,  _that_  is perfect.”

Blaine definitely agreed that the pink ice cream with rainbow candies dispersed throughout it was a fabulous choice. “Do you want it in a cone like the last time you were in here?”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized just how  _creepy_  they sounded. It had been at least two weeks since he’d met Kurt, and that had been the only time up until now that he’d served him.  _Good one Anderson, make him think you stalk him or something_. “I mean, you did get a cone last time, right? I don’t really remember actually…” Blaine kept his head down as he mumbled his excuses, fiddling with the scoop in his hand.  _Shut_ up  _and just look at him already._

Thankfully, when he did bring himself to lift his head, Kurt had disappeared. “Oh, no, definitely a cup. Toppings are a must.” Blaine hoped that Kurt had been too distracted by the assortment of candies at the other end of the counter to really process what he had said before. He quickly loaded two scoops of the cotton candy-flavored confection into a Styrofoam bowl and made his way down to the array of toppings.

 “Okay, so rainbow sprinkles are definitely a must.”

“Obviously.” A spoonful of colorful bits of sugar rained down into the dish.

“Those Nerds are pretty vibrant too.”

“I totally agree.”

“Maybe a few gummy bears too?”

“I’m starting to think you’re secretly a five year old.”

“Shut up Blaine, it’s for the cause.”

“Anything else?”

“Well…a cherry on top couldn’t hurt.”

“No sundae is complete without one.”

Blaine stuck a spoon in to the overfull cup and placed it on the counter. The cherry had already slid down the side, and a few of the gummy bears were threatening to fall off. He had to hand it to Kurt, though, this thing was definitely a rainbow.

“Dig in! I’ll be standing by in case you go into a sugar coma.”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

Kurt glared at Blaine, but he could tell there really wasn’t any heat behind it. He scooped out a spoonful of ice cream, sprinkles, and a lone gummy bear and brought it to his lips.

“Oh my  _god_. People really eat this stuff?” Kurt’s lips pinched together as he swallowed; he looked like he’d eaten something rotten.

“It’s actually one of our most popular flavors.” Blaine tried to hold back his laughter, but he wasn’t really succeeding.

“That’s probably because children don’t have taste buds.”

“If it’s so bad, then why are you still eating it?” Blaine tilted his head in confusion as Kurt ate another spoonful.

“Because it’d be wasteful to trash it, not to mention incredibly rude,” Kurt sighed. “It’s my own fault, I guess.”

Blaine glanced around the store, and peered out the door into the empty parking lot. It was almost 5 o’clock; no one would be coming in for ice cream any time soon.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Blaine grabbed his own spoon and dug into the dessert. “I wouldn’t be much of a gentleman if I made you endure this alone.” He actually thought it tasted pretty good, but the point still stood. “It’s always pretty dead until at least 7, do you want to sit over by the window and finish this?”

Kurt blinked a few times but smiled. “That sounds lovely.”

As Blaine followed him to the table, he couldn’t help but grin. Progress.

 

 

 


End file.
